This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
According to the International Energy Outlook 2006, Report No. DOE/EIA-0484 (2006) from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the world's total net electricity consumption is expected to more than double during the period 2003-2030. Much of the electricity is expected to be used to provide industrial, institutional, commercial, warehouse and residential lighting. Adoption of energy-efficient technologies can help to conserve electricity thereby slowing the growth in both the “base demand” and “peak demand” components of electricity demand. Base demand is the steady-state, or average, demand for electricity, while peak demand occurs when the demand for electricity is the greatest, for example, during a hot summer day when electricity use for air conditioning is very high. Reducing either type of demand is desirable, but a reduction in peak demand generally is more valuable because of the relatively high unit cost of the capacity required to provide the peak demand.
Many facilities (e.g. commercial, residential, industrial, institutional, warehouses, etc.) typically include (or are being modified to include) artificial lighting devices such as high intensity fluorescent (“HIF”) lighting fixtures that reduce the amount of electricity consumed in comparison to other less efficient types of artificial lighting such as high intensity discharge (“HID”) lighting. Although HIF lighting equipment reduces the consumption of electricity required for operation, it is desirable to further reduce the electricity consumed by HIF lighting equipment in a facility. Such lighting devices are often configured for control using relatively simplistic control schemes, such as “on” or “idle” during periods where the facility is regularly occupied, and “off” or “standby” when the facility is regularly unoccupied (typically referred to as the facility's “usage pattern”). It would be desirable to reduce consumption of energy by providing a system and method to permit a power provider to trim or shed certain predetermined loads in cooperation with a facility during peak demand periods. It would also be desirable to reduce consumption of energy during peak and off-peak demand periods by using sensing and control devices to intelligently monitor an environment within a facility to turn-off or reduce power to HIF lighting equipment in the facility, when operation of the equipment is unnecessary, particularly during regularly occupied periods which often correspond to peak demand times for the supplier of the electricity (e.g. utilities, etc.).
What is needed is a system and method for reducing peak and off-peak electricity usage in a facility by intelligently monitoring the need for operation of HIF lighting equipment in a facility, and turning-off the HIF lighting equipment during periods when operation of the HIF lighting equipment is determined to be unnecessary, or when peak demand electric capacity is limited and dictates a reduction in demand. What is also needed is a system and method to reduce electricity usage during peak demand periods by providing a signal from an electricity supplier to the HIF lighting equipment to turn-off certain equipment on an as-needed basis (e.g. during unplanned or unforeseen reductions in capacity, etc.) according to a pre-established plan with the facility to accomplish peak electric supply capacity objectives. What is further needed is a system and method to reduce electricity usage during peak demand periods by automatically providing a signal from an electricity supplier to the HIF lighting equipment to turn-off certain equipment, in accordance with a pre-established plan with the facility, in response to decreasing capacity margins during peak demand periods. What is further needed are suitable sensors operable to monitor the need for operation of the HIF lighting equipment during peak or off-peak demand periods at various locations within the facility. What is also needed is a control device operable to receive an indication of the need for operation of the HIF lighting equipment and to provide a demand-based control signal to turn-off such equipment during periods when operation of the HIF lighting equipment is unnecessary, or override the usage of such equipment when peak demand capacity limitations dictate a reduction in usage. What is further needed is a control device that logs (e.g. records, tracks, trends) the time, duration and amount of electricity that is “saved” by reducing the operation of such equipment, and provides output data to determine the cost savings provided by the intelligent monitoring, relative to the facility's typical usage pattern. What is further needed is a system that communicates with a power provider to permit a user, such as a power provider, to “trim” or “shed” certain loads during peak demand periods by overriding the demand-based control signals. What is further needed is a system that provides a data log of energy reduction (i.e. total reduction and reduction for individual devices) achieved by use of the system, both on a cumulative basis for a designated period of time, and on an instantaneous basis for confirmation by a power provider.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system and method that permits an energy user and/or a power provider to actively manage and reduce the energy usage in a facility required by HIF lighting equipment, particularly during periods of peak and off-peak demand.